Sub Vision: Computers in Education

One of the ideas that float among education ‘wannabe’ is that technology will solve all our educational illnesses. Students with a connection to the internet will have an unlimited access to knowledge resources, and will be able to research every topic to their youthful curiosity, independent of a tiresome teacher…

Good idea? Of course! Does it work? Not necessarily…

I have seen it time and again, at public and private school, high level as well as low level classes. Whenever students have free approach to internet during their class time, they use it for entertainment, not to broaden their scholastic horizons…

As a math teacher, I am convinced that technology introduced at a too young of an age, during learning of basics, ruins the ability of students to build their own mental tools to conquer simple tasks, let along challenging ones. Their imagination is being limited, and their young brain is incapable of making easy connections.

There are tools available to portray more advanced concept in math, and I have seen nice concept applications, but if these tools are presented too early, they prevent the brain from developing ability of abstract thinking.

In different subjects, where learning consists of knowledge acquiring, like history and social studies, computers could be very helpful in looking up facts and researching events. However, as good as it sounds, these usages are not commonly utilized; as soon as students are able, they are off to their interests; Facebook, fashion, tabloid, games, even full length movies or football playoffs…

I recently clarify that fact to a group of our friends, who discussed, during a social event, the benefit students may enjoy by having a computer available in each class and subject. I made a strong argument that every internet access is soon becomes a source of distraction. Less than a week later, a new situation highlighted my point...

I was assigned to a computer application class, the perfect place to merge computer capabilities learning with fun skills practicing. No sooner than the class started, it happened again... Despite the fact that assignment was clear, creative and enjoyable, students, instead, chose immediately games, movies and social media…

Unfortunately, once more I was proven right…

Sub Vision: Calculation and Education

It was quite embarrassing… I was part of a group arranging a large tea party. The kitchen was crowded with many good willed individuals trying to help. Two of us were assigned to the tea preparation that included separating small thin bags, opening them up, pouring in a quarter cup of tea leaves, and sealing them with a curling iron…

Then came the real challenge… this time a mathematical one:

There are 105 cups in the water container. The right amount of tea per one gallon is half a cup of tea leaves. How many (1/4 cup) bags should we put in the water container?

I am sure it had to do with all the pressure around, the people, the time limit, the noise, getting ready for the big event, yet I don’t understand why I just could not figure out the right number of tea bags needed… The people around me were ready to accept any answer I came up with, and I got an OK for anything from 4 to 27 bags per container…

It took me a while but at last I came up with the right answer, confirmed by recalculation on the next day, at home. But back then I still doubted my calculation and was afraid the tea was too strong for all the older people participating, so I took out the bags as soon as the color seemed dark enough, and kept adding hot water to the containers…

Later on I learned that miscalculation was not the only problem with the tea; the water was not hot, tea distribution was not even, with no supply to some tables… but I was just thankful that no heart problems were reported… still I was bothered by my inability to solve this simple math problem, being a reasonably mathematically inclined person…

Interestingly enough, what grounded me at last was an old method that I have never learned at school, nor had I ever seen it being taught… I found it out by listening to a neighbor, (not an educated person), explaining it to another neighbor... He called it the ‘Triangle Value’, similar to proportion, but written differently, in a simpler way:

The top line (in my case) is:         1 gallon (water)  –  ½ a cup (tea leaves)

The second line is:                       6.5 gallons        -    X  cups

To find the X: multiply the value above the X by the value next to it, and divide it by the value diagonal to the X…

So… after so many years of education, and in education, what really helped me solve a real life math problem was a method I overheard from a neighbor… isn’t it interesting?

Yet, this is not the only time I resorted to methods and terms I did not learn at school. The basics for algebra and geometry I learned from my cousin. Understanding fractions, setting up equations and understanding their meaning, I learned from my grandfather… From my parents I learned values, logic, history, geography, politics, and much more…

Maybe we don’t need schools, after all, only good, informed, adults around us…

Sub Vision: Election and Education

The result of the last election is yet to be absorbed by many of us… It is not about Democrats vs. Republicans this time… Yes, there are ideology differences, and yes there is a threat of repealing the president’s executive orders that protect the vulnerable, there is the affordable care (that I strongly support), gun control, and of course the nomination of the Supreme Court justices (shamefully handled by the other side of the isle),  but again… this is not it!

My frustration, indignation, horror, panic, are about the person we elected as a president… A person who offended every sector of our sacred diverse society; insulting religious affiliation, dismissing heroes, implying racism, mocking the disabled, disrespecting women, alienating the LGBT community… all while hiding countless scandals, cheating, dis-loyalties, immoralities, and robbing people who work for him…

This is the person whom we elected to replace the classiest, smartest, most honest person ever sat in the oval office, and his classiest, smartest first lady, with their lovely daughters. Darkness that replaces enlightenment, regression replaces progression, dirt to replace purity, ugliness to replace beauty...

How did it happen will take many more pages of rationalization, many hours of explanations, and many sleepless nights of regret and pondering on what could or should have been done differently…

Here is my token… Americans take their democracy for granted.  They rarely flood the streets to protest injustice. They are removed from commitment to democracy; voting is an option, not an obligation!

I was dismayed to discover that election night was the very night selected by organization to which I belong, to have a membership drive. I was even more amazed to find out that no one opposed that idea, and I, the foreign born citizen, was the only person who chose not to participate and to stay home, to watch (with horror) the election. Furthermore, that night happened to be very successful, all members showed up, even those who were absent for months, and new members turned in record numbers…

In my native country Election Day is a holiday. Workplaces are closed, schools are closed, public transportation is free, and thus everyone is part of the democratic process… yes, people do take advantage of the system, but they do vote too, and a long line to the booth does not scare them. Here, it is hard for working citizens to participate in the election, and for those who have not planned ahead of time to use an absentee ballot, there is a good chance that they will let others decide for them…

And it all goes back to education… Over the past year I visited many schools, majority of them are high schools. To my surprise, students showed very little interest, some even told me that they are not allowed to discuss politics. They were usually curious of my vote, but once they were satisfied that I am on their side (many are immigrants) they lost interest. The only time I heard a heated discussion about the candidates was by three students, all from my homeland, and although we were on different sides they showed the passion and conviction I would expect from all teen-agers... Even the days after the election didn’t bring much attention, and although some expressed a mild surprise, no one really cared!

What do we teach in school? Do we teach mere testable subjects? Do we ever put any emphasis on educating the young generation? Do we still stress ‘Character counts’? Do we talk about values? Do we teach citizenship? Yes, at one point they all have to take a subject called ‘Government’, but is this all the citizenship education that they get? Is this the only vehicle to teach right from wrong?

As a teacher, and educator, I like to observe social connections, especially integration. I love watching friendships between young adults that cross race, color, religion or culture. This is our future…

Few days before the election I was warm-hearten to see two students, of the same age and height, the white student standing in front of the colored one, folding his sleeves up… I thought – this is so cute! The real meaning of integration… Later I learned that they share the same first name, and that they are best friends… made my day…

This is, however, what I heard a week after the election, in a middle school. As I turned my head I heard the word ‘Niger’, something about a ‘Jew’, and…  ‘Heil Hitler’… As far as I know, none of the above words were directed to a specific person; they were part of a word game played by few immature students, yet, I have never heard those words said in public, neither at school nor anywhere else. Is the repulsive, regressive, rhetoric already setting in? Are we already witnessing a new permissive rudeness that we worked so hard to repress all these years? Are we going back to a dreadful reality belongs to another life at another time?

There is no escape from the very serious question – is this what we voted for? Is this the person, and his revolting entourage, that we elected to guide us? Is this the person who will give an example to our kids? 

Sub View: Testing: One step forward, two backward

We are leaving behind the ‘No Child Left Behind’, and trying to find other ways not to leave behind anyone. Teachers, at last, will be able to teach what needed, and students may be able to learn something beyond the mandated standardized tests.

However, the tricky part is not that the standardized tests are the enemy of education, but how they are applied, and what they are used for. For years, now, students had been told not to worry about those tests since they are not used to evaluate them, but their teachers and their school. I have written pages over the irony in how we are so surprised that students don’t take these tests seriously then...

There is, however, one valid test in all this ‘testamania’, that does make, at least, some sense, the California High School Exit Exam (aka CHSEE). This is a standardized exam that proves that a high school graduating student possesses some basic knowledge. It is, in no way, a sufficient measure of skills since it represents eighth grade level, yet, it is one-step toward accountability in education.

Unfortunately, with the wave of repealing everything, this valid criterion is caught in the net too… Hello!!! This is exactly the type of test that is essential. It evaluates success of the individual and has a direct effect, the kind of motivator we need... 

There is only one way to assess what students learned, and more important, what they really knows - an independent, objective test. We don’t keep kids in schools just to make them busy, or retain teachers and administrators for employment. The purpose of school is to teach, and for students, to learn. How do we verify that we fulfilled our mission? By reliance on each school? By trusting each teacher? By believing that all students are created equal and thus acquired the same information?

Schools, districts, teachers, are as different from each other as individual students. We can’t assume that a graduate of one school has the same skills and knowledge of a graduate from another school… Yes, they may have gone through the exact same program, text books, guideline, but does it mean they are equally educated?

The reason why the answer is ‘absolutely not’ is not only because students and teachers are different, it is because every element of the education system is different. Does it mean that we have to give in and say ‘oh well, we cannot fight those differences?’ No! we cannot fight the differences but we have to make sure that the end result of education is similar, despite the differences…

The only way to make sure that no (capable) child is left behind, is to set unison, clear goal for every child, and encourage them to move toward it. A stable target that is not realigned by schools, or teachers, to accommodate slackers who wait for the target to move toward them, but to force them to move toward the target.

The only way to do so is by instituting standardized graduation tests, matriculation tests as in other countries, where passing exams constitutes true graduation, while occupying a desk for twelve years results in receiving a matching certificate…

Ch 20 of 20: What can we do to improve?

Education used to be a privilege only the well to do or the educated elite could effort, and thus schools were filled with students who knew what they were supposed to do at school, and what the consequences of not doing it were…

The mandatory ‘education for all’ brought along with its blessing the drawback of becoming an entitlement instead of a privilege, a basic right to be used or abused…

I don’t suggest, of course, going back to education for the advantaged only. Young people need education whether they realize it or not. Some privileges of education, however, should be restrictive, not according to ability, but to motivation.

There are two factors that can completely change the climate of education in our country: System’s accountability and student’s accountability.

Student’s accountability has to do with motivation to graduate. Motivation must be part of the picture. In contrary to all the wonderful theories that I learned at the credentialing school, it is not up to the teacher! Motivation should come from the student or at least from his/her family. Despite the disapproving silence from my professors, I still believe this is the key!

With years of teaching experience came the realization that indeed, students’ motivation does not count as a factor in students’ achievement. We talk about teachers’ motivation to teach well, about school’s motivation to perform well, administrators’ motivation as their career is heavily weighted on students’ achievements, but we don’t talk of students’ motivation. As if all the other factors could make up for students’ lack of motivation and be OK…

If there is one big missing link on the way to improving education, it is students’ motivation. You can bring the horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink…

Of course, if we could motivate students to study by invoking interest in the subject, it will be the perfect way of learning, but it is a rare commodity at this age. There are few who learn for their own enjoyment but it is hard to count on it... Furthermore, if a person really enjoys history, chances are that he/she does not care for math, for example, but the fact is that every subject does count...

Ideally, a source of motivation should be internal, but it could be also external; being promoted to the next grade level, being able to choose a good university, pleasing a parent or a teacher, or even appreciation of a certain group of friends…

The source of motivation could also be avoidance of undesirable consequences, like transferring to a lower level class, removal from the school, separation from the group of friends, parents’ punishment or privileges taken away…

Students who attend school with one purpose in mind – disruption (no matter why – teachers are not therapists), should not be in a classroom with students who are there to learn. Students who consistently doing nothing in a classroom should be removed from a regular class and be placed in a program that suits their needs at the time, regardless of ability. They could be channeled to a vocational learning, individual learning, or even to a program that involves part time employment and part time schooling, similar to continuation schools. These students can be engaged in activities in which they excel and happily participate. When ready, mature and emotionally stable, they could be re-introduced to the regular academic program.

I don’t mean to ban these students from an academic lane altogether but to let them decide when they are ready for the challenge. Once they are ready it will take them half the time to complete their studies. In the meantime, their peers in the academic program will cruise without interruptions and be able to learn twice as much…

From time to time, a school would do something creative along this line. A school where I worked decided to remove the problematic and unsuccessful math students from algebra classes and put them in a general math. I was assigned to teach them. My experience over all was quite good and I felt students benefited from the extra help. The real advantage, though, was for the algebra teachers … they experienced such an improvement by the removal of few problematic students … They were actually able to teach instead of fighting discipline problems…

Another school, a private school contracted with the district, was dealing with the disruptive students by isolating them from the general student population. Students were assigned to a special program, working individually, and were not allowed to mix with their classmates, not even during break. These students had to meet very strict conditions before they were able to go back to their general classes.

When I was teaching at the special education program, I noticed that students were so embarrassed to be in the special classroom, they would do anything to hide it from their pals. Coming from breaks, for example, they would walk with their friends pass the classroom and once they were safe, they would sneak back. This is an example how avoidance of a situation might motivate students to do well.

Students should be motivated to be at a certain settings. Students at a Magnet programs, for example, behave completely differently from their peers in the regular program. Schools should create curriculum to which students would want to belong, and face consequences of removal for not complying…

Many things are different now from the “then”, that are beyond our control, like discipline measures, respect to authorities, cultural changes, technology. But one thing cannot change - students must do their job. They must be accountable!

The other factor in improving education has to do with system’s accountability, meaning setting a bar for successful education, and calling for students to reach it, rather than lowering the bar to meet students’ level…

A grade of ‘B’ in math analysis must have the same meaning in a well to do areas as in less fortunate neighborhoods. It should mean that a student is competent in this subject, as well as Algebra and Geometry. There should be one standard level in each subject that defines success or failure. A system cannot be accountable if a grade means different things in different schools. I don’t care what level of math should be mandated for graduation, but this level should be uniformly enforced.

To achieve a standard bar, equal for all students, we must have an objective, state wide (or nationwide) standard matriculation test in every subject; A test that will be fair, straight forward, and will require the same level of competency…

As I write, I know how impossible it will be to implement these changes, for reasons completely unrelated to education, but rather to politics… Nevertheless, to be ready for the future and able to compete with other nations on equal footing we must create an objective bar, measured by objective tools…

Carrying out this plan will dramatically improve our educational level. Creating an accountable system will demand accountability from its students that, in turn, will inspire and motivate them to actively perform, not just passively comply, in order to graduate…

Ch 14 of 20: Parents' Rights

Back in the days, the worst-case scenario following bad behavior was parents’ conference. If a parent was contacted and asked to meet with the teacher, it was a complete misfortune for the family, the student, and his/her social life.

My parents, unlike most parents at the time, were at least willing to give me a fair hearing of what had happened. Most parents would not even listen, and automatically side with the teacher. It would be considered a disgrace for the family if their student so misbehaved.

This type of parents’ reaction does not exist anymore, especially not in second-generation American families. It may still be true for families who recently emigrated from different countries, especially developing countries, where education and teachers’ authority is still taken quite seriously…

One of the reasons for this phenomenon results from parents losing authority with their children. They may be too busy working multiple jobs and thus being away from home, or they may start losing respect from the younger generation due to language deficiency or cultural background.

I have met so many wonderful, willing to help and supportive, Hispanic parents, who valued education and wish their students to succeed, and yet are completely powerless in their attempt to influence their child.

Situation changes for the worse, unfortunately, after families have been here for a while, and are swayed by a sense of entitlement; feeling that the system owes them. They neglect their responsibilities and lay it all on teachers, and school in general. From this group of people I often hear a blaming tone. They, often, refuse to take responsibility for their student’s behavior and blame teachers and administrators. Some even flatly declare that they are not going to do anything about their misbehaving student…

And then there is a third group of parents, parents of students who are fairly motivated, disciplined, and quite well mannered. Usually they live in affluent areas, and go to respectable schools. These are the schools where teachers have fewer problems with students but many more problems with parents…

Teachers who work in those schools tell me horror stories about parents screaming at them for not complying with their demands regarding procedures, homework assignments, and most commonly – grades. These teachers deal with parents who treat them like kids and try to control their teaching and decision making…

Imagine a corporate environment where a boss has to answer for employee’s parents’ demands regarding special treatment for their son or daughter…

Consider a situation where a worker is directly responsible before the law, not only for things he/she has done, but for things done by somebody else. A case where not reporting, or not even noticing, misconduct done by others, may carry a severe punishment that could cost him/her job, and even imprison...

Compare the education profession to other careers, considering the layers of “bosses”, so to speak, to whom teachers have to report. There is the department head, the administrator in charge, the principal, the school district officials, as well as other special supervisors and advisers, to name few.

…Add to that 200 students, and double this number of parents and guardians… all bossing the same teacher…

Ch 8 of 20: School Size

Have you heard of “a Bank too big to fail”? How about “a School too big to succeed”? I bet you have never heard this one, yet it reflects a sad reality…

Schools became industrial monsters with a mission to input as many students as possible and output them as fast as possible; preferably never beyond four years… what happens in between is a black box…

How do schools do that? How do they enter thousands of students through their gates and make sure that they do not entangle on their way out four years later? Well, this is a very big, well-oiled, machine that uses a huge amount of resources. With years of practice and history of experience, the system runs, technically, quite smoothly, but on the way to efficiency, it forgets its exclusive purpose – educating young people; it loses its human factor. Who has time for that?

Deans of discipline have tens of students lining up in front of their office every single day. Counselors never have enough time to catch up, being responsible for programming hundreds of students and for other endless duties, while their real job, counseling, is at the bottom of the list due to lack of time.

And what about teachers? Teachers at a public school see, typically, two hundred students a day! Imagine, first, trying to learn names of two hundred kids, and this is without counting those who come and leave, especially at the beginning of the school year. A good way to handle it is creating seating charts. It really helps, but it takes a long time to create, and even longer to maintain …

One of my yearlong assignments was teaching algebra to 9^th graders, replacing a teacher who left for maternity leave. It was the beginning of the school year and I had a pretty good start. However, as soon as I created seating charts, a special education teacher came to tell me that they are re-arranging class assignment for their students, and thus, number of students from each class had been replaced with new students… Few days later an administrator said that due to a crowding situation they are moving students around to create a satellite campus… again certain number of students were removed and others joined… Less than a week passed when another teacher announced that he is switching some of his students with mine so that he can continue a program that he started during the summer… By that time I realized that all my good students were replaced with not so good students, my seating charts are worthless, and it is going to be tough. And it was…

Even at classes that do not change that dramatically, sometimes it takes almost a whole semester to master all 200 names. At one school, where I started mid-year, teaching math lab to students who failed algebra, I had a tougher than usual time putting names and faces together. It was a new school, new material, and new students’ population, where, to my inexperienced eyes, many of them looked alike… To make it more confusing, some first names were similar, and even worse – numerous last names were the same. It took me almost the whole semester to learn who is who… At last, when I thought that I had it all figured out, all of a sudden I realized that during third period, there is a student that I could swear I had already seen at first period. I didn’t give it much thought until the next day when I had that same déjà vu. When, at last, I decided to check it out I discovered, to my great embarrassment, that these students were identical twins…

The amount of work that goes into monitoring two hundred students is quite impossible. A weekly quiz of only 5-10 problems, one minute each to check, becomes more than three hours job, without rechecking any. Add few rechecks, several notes and, of course, recording grades, and you have spent well over five hours a week checking just one tiny quiz. What about a chapter test every few weeks, a semi-final or final test? How about a project? An assay? And of course it will be nice to be able to check homework assignments from time to time, just spot checking, only twice a week… It will be eight AFTER HOURS hours!

It might not be the right place to talk about preparation since teachers have to do lesson plans regardless of number of students. It is, however, the place to mention that a teacher is supposed to create three different lesson plans – one for average students, one for the special need students that are probably part of your class, and one for the high achievers who need extra challenge. I don’t know too many teachers who actually do that on a regular basis, but this is what a teacher is expected to do!!! …And if you are in a teaching credentialing program, or some other program to upgrade your qualifications, (and teachers are always in one program or another), you are sure to be required to obey this rule…

So how did the system make this impossible time-frame possible? One of the most genius inventions of the twentieth century was the multiple-choice tests and the beloved scantron.  The happy noise of the scantron machine grading your students’ finals can be only compared to the noise of a gambling machine pouring rain of coins when you hit the winning combination (and they don’t even have those anymore L). Listening to the scantron doing the work for you and thus saving you hours and hours of work is just as exciting as winning big! Real big!

Yes, it is such an efficient tool – yet, with so many deficiencies… We are losing to its effortlessness a big part of teaching and learning. Using it, teachers are unable to see where students are mistaken, what part of the learning needs re-enforcement, and do students know the material or just guess the answers. To make it worse - we created a whole system that trains students in being good at guessing the right answer; a whole industry for teaching students how to work around the need of actually understanding the material, how to fake a knowledge… We teach them how to be successful test takers, not successful learners…

Do you think that students don’t get the message? You bet they do! They learn early in their school life that the main goal is to ace the test. They don’t bother too much with the journey, then, they just want a shortcut to the results. By the time they are in high school they are accomplished test swindlers… Seconds after receiving the test form, they already figure out how many versions the test has, and who is their best copying resource. They have more ways of doing that than we can imagine, including using technology. We, the teachers, joke that if students were only half as resourceful learners as they are swindlers, they would be ‘A’ students. Yes, the system is smart about mass evaluation, but students outsmart the system.

One of my colleagues tried a way to control different test versions. Being a very well organized person, he created color-coded versions. This method might have worked for him, having excellent class control, but it didn’t work quite as well for me. As soon as the students realized what the colors meant, a secret trade started immediately. As naïve as I was I didn’t catch the trade on time, and was quite surprised to find a pink next to a pink and green next to a green. It was not until I saw an actual trade happening in front of my eyes that I realized what was going on… students were making sure they have the same color as their resource …

I tried to outsmart the students by numbering all the tests and secretly coding the version (even numbers, numbers ending with 5). I don’t know that it worked. I suspect that, somehow, they managed to break the code (never underestimate students) but one thing is sure, it didn’t help my reputation with students…

Additional, interesting, comment about copying - it always surprised me that some students would rather copy a test from someone, anyone, and not try themselves …

Another masses nightmare is communicating with parents. To shield teachers from the need to meet with all 200 parents, frequent report cards are mandated, 8 report cards a year!  If you are not a teacher you don’t know how much work it involves. Every single grade has to be well thought and well documented; it is a very time consuming process that has to be done every 5 weeks! Is it a good system? Better than nothing, but the problem is that it cannot replace the value of meeting with parents face to face. For one thing – some parents never see those report cards. Their students have a way of hiding them. Others do not know the whole picture or cannot use their authority to push the student in the right direction, and when at last they realize how poor their student’s performance is, in many cases it is too late…

Some schools use automated phone system to inform parents about students’ absence from school or class. Some schools use automated calls to inform about bad behavior or academic problems… And yes, it is better than nothing… but in order to really solve problems and keep students on track there should be a direct communication between teachers and parents. But with all good intentions, it is not realistic for a teacher to call periodically every student’s home, let alone schedule a10 minutes meeting with 200 hundred parents, because 200 appointments times 10 minutes each, equals 2000 minutes… over 30 hours of extra work…

Ch 7 of 20: Books

Remember those light weighted books that our parents would buy us at the beginning of the school year? Well, maybe what I remember from a different country, in a different era, does not apply to my generation’s experience in the US, but I am sure someone remembers, even here, a time when a textbook was just that – a text book. Not an artistic creation with colorful pictures and short sophisticated clips, but just a book with text. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for enrichment of the mind and the senses, and teaching with open horizons is more than just a good idea… but…

How many students do you know that are looking at those additions just because they find them interesting? We do; the teachers, the parents, the adults who are holding the textbooks, but most of the children do not. “So what?” you would say – “if only one in a hundred students looks at the enriching part then it is well worth it…” And you may be right. However, this enrichment comes with a price… each text book weighs more than an average person can hold for several minutes… if I need to move two or three books at a time I really have a problem – and I am a fit adult who is able to handle more stress than many teachers I know. “Well, students are younger and stronger” you may claim, and you may be right again, but what happened when they have to carry five or six books that are just as heavy? My daughter suffers from backaches for years now, since she was in middle school. Being the ‘A’ student that she is, she carried all her books back and forth, as she was told to do, in a backpack that was as heavy as her skinny early teens figure… I used to watch her with pain as she carried those torturous heavy books, and I would frantically call the middle school office begging them to delay the school bus departure for several minutes so that students would have enough time to get to their lockers and get rid of the weighty burden at the end of the day, but of course my appeal was never listened to.  Yet, as a parent, I was quite impressed by the quality and richness of the textbooks, and considered their weight as a trade-off. I changed my mind when I became a teacher…

I realized that no one of my students had ever read or paid any attention to the extra information. Few of them might have found some of the information mildly interesting if I read it to them, and even that slight interest happened only in the higher-level classes. I found the over-loaded information too confusing for the average student, the pages too busy, and the important information too hard to find. My favorite Algebra and Geometry textbooks were two simple books that were assigned to me when I was teaching special education class on my first year; basic, colorless small books, with the learned material simple, clear and easy to find. I used those books whenever I could do so without risking my career…

One of the hardest and least effective battle that I had to fight with my students was making them bring textbooks to class. It was just a losing game. Once you sent the books home with students, at the beginning of the school year, as you were supposed to do, most probably you would never see them until the end of the year (usually still brand new and untouched...) If you allowed students to leave their books in your classroom, most probably they will soon disappear, and not only that would not be used, but you, the teacher, will be blamed for their loss. Officially, teachers are not allowed to store students’ books in their classroom.

So… many schools came up with a solution – they offer a class set. Sounds like a great idea? (especially for the books’ publisher…)  Not so fast! These books are not assigned to a specific student since they are being used by all learners that take the same class, and thus they are subjected to neglect and abuse… I saw classroom books flying in the air toward unsuspecting student, being torn, left on the floor and stepped on, being transported to random locations at the school grounds, and most of all – being an open space for graffiti, innocent in the better case, but quite often inappropriate and vulgar.      

Different teachers have different solutions for the books dilemma. One of my colleagues, whose classroom was next to mine, a tough guy who was also a respected coach, did not give in to the books situation. He did not agree to have a class set and demanded that students bring their own textbooks. Students that came empty-handed had to stay standing up for the entire period… It took me a while to figure out why some of his students would come to my classroom and ask to borrow an algebra book, with a solemn promise to bring it back (and they did). But, when more and more students showed up with the same request … I, at last, asked him what was going on and found out what the reason was…

Other teachers’ answer to this impossible situation is not using textbooks at all – they use only worksheets… Imagine the expense that results. Not only that the school spends hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars on textbooks (and they are mandated by the district!) it wastes many additional thousands of dollars on duplications. Most of those papers are just for a one time use and being tossed (or become flying objects) very soon afterwards. And the worst part of using worksheets is not even the waste, but its poor value as learning materials. Students get into a bad habit of just plugging in an answer in the “fill in the blank” area (makes the job of copying real easy...). I was shocked to discover, when teaching Algebra II to eleventh graders, that doing homework means for them just writing the answers on a piece of paper, without even copying the problems (and in most cases just copying the solution from the back of the book…)

So how did we get ourselves in such an impossible book situation? The answer is, unfortunately, quite common in the education business – money! Someone is making money, a lot of money, out of those textbooks. Think about a large school district that enforces a certain textbook on all students in its domain. Each of these hard covered, heavy with hundreds of pages, books, cost the district many tens, if not hundreds, of dollars. How can the publisher charge so much for its product? By padding it with very many un-necessary colorful pages so it can justify the price. This is not a new trick by any means. Restaurants, for example, give us enormous and unreasonable amount of food just so that they can charge us a lot more…

Of course, this is not the only way to get the district pay unbelievable amount of money for textbooks… Every so often, the school district is committed to buy a new edition of the same books… well, hard covered books don’t get destroyed very easily so there must be another way to move and re-vitalize the book business -  new edition... They do that also to the colleges and universities textbooks, although probably not with as much revenue as in the K-12 industry.

So, here we are again… Teachers (and students) pay the price for a system that is completely ignoring their needs. Books that are impractical for use by teachers and don’t fit the needs of students. A situation where teachers are scrambling to find a way around the system to supply their students with what they really need. And in doing so, not only they, quite often, use their own money to supplement a budget of millions of dollars used inefficiently, but they are also prevented from doing what they really want to do – teach efficiently…

Ch 6 of 20: Discipline

From: Cubs Pre-School

Picture going to a lecture on your favorite subject, on a topic that you are anxious to learn about. What are the chances that you will comprehend and learn from it if the people who are sitting around you are constantly talking? What if right in the middle of the most interesting part of the lecture your friend at the other end of the hall calls for your attention to something she wears or a good piece of gossip. What part of the interesting lecture would you understand, or even hear?

And, what if this lecture is not that interesting to you? You need to take it in order to qualify for something, but it is not really your favorite subject? What are the chances that you learn anything from it at all?

This is the situation that teachers face every single day in their classroom, when trying to compete for students’ attention… Imagine a history teacher trying to teach about the French Revolution, not a bad subject at all, and can be interesting even to a non-history enthusiasts… But can the history teacher win the attention of a fourteen, or even eighteen years old student who listens to a real juicy piece of news about a classmate, a friend or a teacher? No way!

Now… think about a teacher trying to teach not history – French Revolution, but math… geometry, for example, a mandatory subject for all students…

You would say, it is the responsibility of the teachers to keep the class quiet and make sure the students’ attention is focused on the lesson, and teachers who are unable to do so are “ineffective teachers”. Really!

Well, how exactly does the teacher supposed to do just that – keep the class quiet and focused? In an upper middle class, sub urban areas, there is some leverage for a teacher. He/she may ask students to stay after class or after school and talk to them, appealing to their reasoning. If it does not help he/she may call students’ parents, and if not enough invite them for a meeting. Teachers may assign students extra work, and of course can always use the mighty threat of report card grade. If none of the above helps – the last resort may be used - referrals to an administrator or dean of discipline. Teachers do not like to use that as it reflects right back at them, perceived as not being in control, but it is an option...

But…What are the tools for a teacher who teaches in less favorable areas – in a lower socioeconomic or inner city areas, where many students don’t respond to the usual measures, and a bad grade is not a threat.

I can’t even count the number of times when I asked students to stay after class or come after school and they just did not show up.

So, I would try the next step, contacting the parents. Often I would not be able to reach them because contact phone had been disconnected, or, family had been relocated…  If reached, parents would usually be supportive; however, chances are that they are struggling with basic life’s necessities, working several different jobs, trying to feed kids and elders. They do want to help but many times are unable, and sadly, sometimes, they have little or no influence on their kids…

Teacher’s choices, then, are very limited, and they have to use their last resort - appealing to the help of the school administrators or deans, and thus pay the dreaded price of being labeled by them as “ineffective teacher”, because the other option is even worse – being labeled by the… students as “ineffective teacher”…

When I happily graduated from the teaching credentials program, I knew it is not going to be easy, but no one prepared us, the future teachers, for the ruthlessness of some students, or told us how exposed and helpless teacher really are. It is not that students are necessarily bad or mean; it is just that they know exactly how far they can go without being panelized. They completely understand that the system is a hundred percent behind them while their teachers are practically defenseless.

I used to be very resentful toward the deans of discipline, feeling that they don’t help enough, until I heard, unofficially, a dean speaking his mind and telling how helpless he is when it comes to strict measures of discipline. He was describing situations where students caused so many problems and yet he was just unable to expel them. Every time he did, they would, somehow, be back at school… This was when I realized that the system’s incompetence is far deeper than I thought…

You see, discipline is not only an obedience problem, it is an academic problem! If a teacher tells a student to bring a notebook and a pencil, to open a book or to copy from the board, and he refuses to do so just because he is not interested, this is not a disciplinary problem anymore, but an academic issue that its implication goes far beyond one individual. It influences every person in that learning environment.

Yes, some students, maybe ten percent of the classroom population, will always be able to learn. Some students, maybe another ten percent, will never learn (at least not for now), but what about the other eighty percent?

I am not exaggerating when I say that we lose eighty percent of our students’ population every single day, every semester and every school year, to the disturbance of ten, maybe less, percent of the students. The major part of a classroom population is missing its chance to learn because they are taken hostages by a small number of students whose sole purpose is to divert others’ concentration from the learning, and become the center of attention…

I saw an example of a creative solution in one school, at a satellite campus, where teachers and administrators, enjoying some independence, dealt with the problem in an innovative way. On the second semester of the school year they decided to get rid of the disturbance and removed the failing students (those who failed algebra on the first semester) from their regular program and created a new class for them. Their goal was to give the algebra teachers a chance to progress without the constant interruption, and thus give their full attention to the motivated students. I was assigned to teach the failing students. Not surprisingly, it worked great for the regular teachers. They were able to teach, at last, and kept thanking me for talking the problem students. The real surprise, though, was that it worked well for me, and my students, too. I was not pressured to move in a certain pace and thus was able to go back to basics and concentrate on subjects with which students were struggling. As tough crowd as they were, it actually worked quite fine, and at the end of the semesters students came to me and said that now they are able to understand concepts that they had never understood before. Unfortunately, the program was cancelled once the satellite campus returned to the main campus, and creativity gave way to rules and regulations…

We must realize that discipline is the main obstacle in the way to a better education structure, and that teacher’s “shortcoming” is a direct result of the system’s shortcoming …

I challenge all politicians and “education specialists” to step into one of those schools in an unprivileged areas, where administrators and teachers are losing sleep over students achievements, and to spend only one month there as classroom teachers… Of course, a whole semester would be much better. Few days or even a week, are not enough time to be part of the effort…I want them to experience what teachers are facing every day. To see how a small number of teenagers are holding hostage the learning experience, and how highly educated adults turn blind eye toward the real problem. I want them to feel the frustration of teachers, the essence of education, as the system turns its back to them…

From: Cubs Pre-school